Members of the team arrived in trickles to the five-star hotel close to the airport, from various cities on 15 July, ready to leave for Colombo on Monday afternoon 16 July.

The team departed from Chennai Airport and arrived to a rousing reception and press conference at the Taj Samudra Hotel.

Tendulkar was intended to leave on 1 August to play in the ODI match on August 2.

Srinath, Ramesh and Prasad arrived on 7 August.

Time spent in Sri Lanka

49 days

(16 July - 3 September)

On-tour selection

Ganguly (captain), Dravid (vice-captain),Tendulkar, Wright (coach)

Reinforcements

At end of ODI series, VVS Laxman (injured right knee cartilage) and Ashish Nehra (strained left groin) had to leave for India for investigation and treatment.

Sachin Tendulkar was pronounced unfit to take part on 10 August and Baroda's Jacob Martin flew to Colombo on Sunday morning 12 August.

Javagal Srinath suffered a fracture in his left hand's little finger after being struck by a Dilharo Fernando delivery in the Galle Test and he returned to Bangalore. The Indian Board decided the team would manage without a replacement and the tour management's request for Ajit Agarkar to replace Srinath was rejected.